Cradle arms techies with new-age ammo

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, on Tuesday launched three MTech programmes in its attempt to encourage students to pursue career in research.

“The MTech courses will be in mechatronics, nanoscience and nanotechnology, and mathematics and computing. These are unique programmes and are much in demand in today’s competitive world. IIT-Patna has become the first IIT to start MTech course in nanotechnology,” IIT-Patna director Anil Kumar Bhowmick said during an orientation programme for students applying for the three subjects.

Each course would have 10 seats and students would be selected on the basis of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering score and the interview conducted by the IIT-Patna.

Suresh Prasad, the in-charge of the institute’s training and placement cell, said: “A premier technical institute is re-cognised by the quality of research by its students and faculty. Our focus is to engage more students in research.”

He added that the IIT-Patna has tied up with University of Houston and Louisiana State University, USA, and University of New South Wales, Australia, for research projects. “Such tie-ups will give IIT-Patna students opportunities to visit the foreign universities to develop their research skills and interact with experts engaged in various sectors,” Prasad said.

The students attending the orientation programme were happy to get the chance to pursue such new-age courses.

Sagnik Ghosh, who has done his BTech (electronics) from BP Poddar Institute of Management and Technology, Calcutta, said: “I have taken admission in MTech programme in nanotechnology and want to make a career in very-large-scale integration— a process to create integrated circuits for mobile and computer chips.” He added that not much research projects on nanotechnology were happening in India even as the country is one of the biggest consumers of cellphones.

Shikha Suman, a graduate from BIT, Sindri who would pursue mechatronics as her MTech programme at IIT-Patna, said: “I want to pursue a career in robotics. In Japan, research activities in robotics started way back in the eighties. But the concept was introduced in India much later. Instead of only eyeing for jobs in corporate houses, engineering students in India should focus more on research.”